Beyond DADT and New START

As New START heads for ratification and the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell gets signed, I am feeling the need to explain why I’ve devoted so little time to both, even though my Twitter feed talks about little else.

In my way of thinking, both New START and DADT are peripheral to the main war and peace issues of our time.  Even though New START was bought with a giant increase in funding for modernization of U.S. nuclear weapons, far more than even proponents of modernization envisaged at the beginning of the process, it can be argued that without the treaty efforts to strengthen the nonproliferation regime through measures like a cut-off in production of fissile material would be harder.  It can also be argued that eliminating DADT will grow the pool of competent people interested in entering the U.S. military and eliminate a hypocritical restriction unworthy of a country dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal.

But these are indirect arguments, secondary effects that do not deal directly with the main war and peace issues of our day.  People are fighting and dying in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia–if peacebuilding efforts are not handled well more will die.  Iran poses a serious challenge to American goals in the Middle East, with consequences for friends and allies as well as ourselves.  The United States faces difficult choices:  are we right to devote so many troops and so much money to Iraq and Afghanistan, or should we be paying more attention to Yemen and Somalia, or Iran?  Will our beefed up diplomatic efforts in Sudan avoid catastrophe there after the January 9 referendum on independence for the South?  There are real trade-offs among the conflict issues of our day, with life and death consequences for real people.

Let me be clear:  I support repeal of DADT as well as ratification of New START.  These are good things that respectively improve America’s record of consistency with its own ideals and increase the prospects for controlling proliferation of nuclear weapons.  But they are mainly about us:  our foolish discrimination against people who want to serve the nation, our nuclear weapons and their modernization.

The Administration should not rest on these laurels, important and deserved as they are.  There is a dangerous world beyond DADT and New START that needs American attention.